Leon Raether

2022

Trade - Plastering

I enjoy what I do and it will be an honour to be able to travel the world doing my trade. I never would have thought that when I started my trade that i would have an opportunity like this, so it will be an absolute pleasure to be able to do it.

All in all I would like to get more life experience from doing this scholarship.  I find that the best way for me to learn is to get out there and interact with everything and everyone. This scholarship will give me a great platform to meet so many amazing and interesting people and allow me to gain more knowledge on how other people see and approach life. 

I would love to see and learn how people in other countries approach my trade and how they are taught in comparison to the way I was. Ideally I will take what they have learnt and combine their knowledge with my own.

As much as supporting the environment is good, I also believe that proper knowledge of one another and caring for one another is the best way to make a more sustainable future. I genuinely think that if we all cared for each other and aspired to be better people everyday then a sustainable future is well in our reach.

Q: A Global Footprints Scholarship is your opportunity to do more of what you love. What have you done at work that you are proud of or passionate about?

Throughout my experience i have gained recognizable achievements.

The first one of these was competing in the World Skills competition in 2021.  I was selected as a wildcard by my lecturer and I managed to grab myself the silver medal which for me was an amazing achievement and I couldn't have been prouder of myself.

Another thing that work has done for me that I am super proud of is being selected and sent to do the TSTL -Today's Skills Tomorrow's Leaders program which was held in Canberra. Only 22 apprentices/trainees are selected to be a part of this program and I was successful in securing a spot. This program was the best opportunity that work has given me, I was able to meet some absolutely amazing and talented people and created memories that I will never forget. This program was incredibly informative and I learnt so much about how I can be my best self and how I can become a better leader. After doing this program I have already started looking at life in a different way and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of something as great as TSTL.

Lastly, I have been nominated for the South Australian Training Awards,  Apprentice of the year and so far I've made it to the shortlist interview and am yet to find out how much further in this I will go.

I am so proud of myself for all of these achievements and none of it would have been possible without the support and mentorship working at Precision Plasterboard.

Q: A Global Footprints Scholarship is for those who are passionate about creating a sustainable future. Describe something you have done at work or are working on, that helps the environment. Why is it important to you?

A big thing that I do at work to help the environment is to always make sure there is a skip bin around on site and all rubbish is put away. We do a lot of insurance work which means we have a lot of mess to constantly clean up. Ensuring that all of this waste is properly disposed of is my way of contributing towards a greener environment and keeping our planet a little bit cleaner.

This is important to me because the world is our home, if we don't look after it then eventually there will be some sort of consequence. The better we treat the world the better the world will treat us.

There isn't much more I am passionate about other then having a bond with each and every person I meet.

My way of contributing to a better future is to form those bonds and make sure that I try to influence every person I come across in a positive way. This Scholarship again is a perfect platform for me to expand how many people I can form these bonds with.

Q: Everyday across the globe, people make breakthroughs for a more sustainable future. What have you seen or heard about that you find inspiring, and why?

This may be a little bit off topic or irrelevant, but my mum has moved up to the Northern Territory to nurse in the aboriginal communities. She has always wanted to do this mostly because she loves helping  people in need and learning about other cultures. I find this incredibly inspiring because it is the exact reason why I will love to experience a BBM scholarship.  I personally believe that the best thing for a more sustainable future is just people understanding one another and respecting our differences. The only way this is possible is by getting out there with an open mind and actually caring about one another enough to listen and learn. 

I personally find that the biggest issue we have in the world is judgement and not understanding other’s beliefs and ways of living. If we all come together and put all our differences aside then what we could accomplish to create a sustainable future is limitless. 

Q: As a Global Footprints Scholar you can choose to go anywhere in the world. Where would you travel with your Scholarship and why?

Honestly the location in which I will travel to for the scholarship does not bother me, I feel like wherever I go I will be able to learn something new about my trade and develop bonds with incredible people in industry and out of industry.

In an ideal world I would go someplace that English is the main language to reduce that language barrier issue, but again I would be more then happy to try and learn another language, embrace their culture and experience their workplace environment.

“Leon demonstrates a good holistic outlook with a real people focus.”

- Ben Madden, Global Footprints Assessor